Nothing to Doubt
by SmubCG
Summary: In a world where "fanfiction" aren't just stories you read online, but somewhere you go to travel to the world of your choice and embark on your own epic journeys, where would you go? LawxOC traveling world fic. Rated T for language.
1. Prologue

**Hey everyone. Well first of all, I'd like to apologize for the late updates seeing that this hiatus took longer than what I said. I had a lot of things going on and it was very hard to make time to write. With that said, I do have a plan for this story and I'm going to start it off by rewriting these first couple of chapters. They aren't too different from the original. They have some slightly edited parts and some new parts, but all in all are generally the same. This is because they're slightly more thought out and to also help me get back in the mojo for writing.**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own One Piece**

* * *

A fourteen year old girl ran out of the door leading to the orphanage.

"Come back!" a woman cried, chasing her only to stop at the door, unable to leave the rest of the inhabitants unattended.

She didn't listen as she forced her legs to continue pushing her forward down the pavement. With her feet pounding against the hard pavement, she flung herself forward with incredible speed.

Too old they said.

Too _damn_ old. Too old to _really_ be considered for adoption. Nooo, they wanted someone younger, someone brighter with more energy. Someone they could properly raise.

'Someone they could mold my ass' she thought bitterly. She knew of course, that not everyone thought that way about foster children. She liked to believe that most people had a heart. Those people who came—intruded—into the house earlier was just part of the small percentage who didn't. They were just plain nasty. But she also knew that, deep down, their comment had struck a nerve.

'It doesn't matter' she continued to tell herself 'It would just end the same way'. And it probably would. It always did. Get adopted for maybe about a month; the "trial" she secretly called it. Then they find her unsuitable even after the initial meeting goes great.

They always changed their minds in the end. It happened so many times, she began to wonder if it really was her fault. Maybe they could tell she didn't fully trust them and decided they just didn't want to deal with it, she wondered. One way or another, she always found her way back at the orphanage.

But the caretaker always had faith that one day, the right family would truly take her in and be there for her. And she believed her. Until recently, that was.

'Who am I kidding?' she thought, tears welling up in her eyes. 'A family? For me? I'm calling bull. It's all bull'.

They made it pretty clear. She was too old now for any serious consideration in adoption. It was too late for her now.

 _Maybe they were right_

Maybe she _was_ getting too old. God, there weren't even any decent hand-me downs left to fit her. The best she could do were some boys t-shirts and pants the caretaker would cut to make shorts for her. But the shorts didn't even fit all that well anymore; she wasn't a little girl anymore. Her steadily growing hips were proof of that.

 _Proof she was too old_.

She turned a corner and ended up in an alleyway next to a small restaurant, leaning against the wall to catch her breath.

'Even if I am getting too old, there's nothing I can do about it' she thought. She stood straighter to stretch her sore legs. 'I guess I'm just going to have to stay there until it's time for me to go. Who knows? Maybe my life will get better. It did for Riley'

Relaxing a bit, she bent over to pull the bottom of her shorts lower.

"Ugh, these shorts are getting way too tight. I need new clothes, but I have not money…" she muttered to herself.

Suddenly, there was a loud noise, making her slightly jump and turn around in fright. She heard some more loud commotion followed by an even bigger loud noise and noticed the side door of the restaurant, leading into the alley. The door sprang open and a lady looking no older than thirty stormed out with a short man following closely behind.

"Fuck you! I quit!" she yelled over her shoulder, slinging a bag over it.

"Fine by me! Don't ever show your face here again!" the short man said just as loud and red in the face, struggling to keep up with her long strides.

"Ohhhh you won't ya jackass!" the lady responded. She ripped the apron tied around her waist and threw it on the ground. Stepping on it for good measure, she stormed out of the day.

"Boss!" a guy popped from out of the open door "We've got all these tables complaining about their food!"

The 'boss', she assumed, sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose.

"Of course this happened the moment one of the only waitresses quits!" he seethed "Where am I going to get another one?"

At that moment, the man finally noticed the extra person standing by, surprised by the whole fiasco.

"Hey you! Need a job?" he asked, not caring for her appearance. A kid can serve, right?

She made a show of looking around before turning back to him and slowly bring her finger up to point to herself.

"Yes, you. Who else would I be talking to? The damn garbage? Do you need money?"

The word money rang out to her. She bit the inside of her check and nodded.

"What's your name?" he asked with a look of satisfaction at his new employee.

"Sage" she said.

"Name's Sean. Nice to meet you Sage. There's a couple of tables in there that's got your name written all over it".

* * *

 **Well that's the slightly new prologue! Hope you guys aren't mad and will continue to follow this story!**


	2. Chapter 1

A loud crash rang out silencing the small restaurant. Halting their conversations, many of the customers glanced up to find the cause of the noise. Off to the side, by the double doors leading to the kitchen, was a small waitress hunched over, picking up the remains of what looked to be glass. Ignoring the sniggers of the customers around her, she quickly picked up the large pieces and scurried into the kitchen as another waiter went over and started sweeping up the accident. With the mess clean and nothing left to look at, the nosy customers went back to their meals and conversations. They wanted to finish their dinners and get home before the drunks started to come in for the evening bar.

Inside the kitchen, different staff members glanced towards the girl walking to the nearest trashcan to dispose of the glass shards. Some looked at her with pity in their eyes while others looked at her with sheer contempt.

Sean stormed through the double doors and looked around, stomping over to the girl just as she finished wiping away any glass left on her hands. She looked up to see him, but before she could utter a word, he exploded.

"Damnit Sage!" he yelled at her

"One job! You had one job! Take the drinks" he gestured with his arms from one side of his body and swung them over to the other "to the table. But you can't even do that anymore!"

Sage stayed quiet and lowered her face from his glare.

"That's the third time this week!" he continued "Are you suddenly fucking ditzy or something?"

Sage wasn't ditzy. She knew exactly what she was doing. She wanted to get out of there, but she wasn't sure how to quit. How to just leave after almost four years. So she made a routine instead. Break something. Apologize. Repeat. Soon, she stopped apologizing and just took the verbal abuse, hoping Sean would finally have enough of her and fire her.

"You really want out of here that bad? Fine then! You're fired! Honestly! I don't even know why I ever hired a minor in the first place…"

Umm, wasn't it because of super cheap pay?" came a giggle. They turned around and saw some bottle service girls by the side alley door, coming in early for the night shift. The one who spoke seemed to have already taken a few pre game shots for the coming night.

'Really now' Sage thought 'maybe I should've thought it through before accepting to work at a bar of all places. Then again I thought it was just a restaurant at the time'. By law, Sean couldn't make Sage work the night shift because of her minor status. 'But I'll be eighteen tomorrow and I really don't want night shifts. I've seen some of the bottle girls when I come in the mornings'.

"She wasn't supposed to work here at all; kids aren't supposed to work, especially not at bars" glared a red headed bottle service girl.

Sage didn't pay much attention to the rude comments and stares from her ex-workers and turned around to walk away.

They aren't important she thinks. 'What is important is that I finally got fired. I've wanted to quit for so long. Seriously, it's moments like these that make me wish I could be like other people. Strong-willed and assertive. If I was, than maybe, I could have just said "I quit" once and be done with it. Leave this bar and never look back'.

A memory of when she was fourteen flashed in her mind. The memory of the woman, storming out the door and leaving the alley.

'But I'm not strong-willed and assertive, so I end up going out of my way and putting the extra effort to get myself fired instead' she thought sullenly.

Reaching the back of the break room to get her things out of her locker. Her face gave nothing away, but she was jumping for joy.

'I'm finally leaving this rat hole. I'm so happy, I don't even care what this does to my resume' she thought entering the break room and allowing a small smile creep onto her face after confirming nobody was around.

The break room was a very small room with a couple of tables spread around. There were three vending machines and a fridge lined up on the other side against the wall. The lockers were placed adjacent to the vending machines. There wasn't much in her locker, just her keys and her phone.

'In all honesty, if I had known tonight would be the night I got fired, I would have just kept the keys and phone on me' she thought grabbing her two items.

"Well you sure look excited for someone who just got fired. I couldn't help but notice the little skip in your step right before coming in here" a voice said from the doorway causing Sage to jump.

She turned around and come face to face with Brea, the red headed bottle service girl. Brea was a mean girl who liked to pick on Sage. Whatever the reason was, Sage could never find out. She tried not to let her mean attitude get to her.

"You must have been desperate if you went through all that trouble. Giving Sean so much trouble. Even after we took _such_ good care for you these past four years" she cooed in mock hurt, stepping in and closing the door behind her"

Sage raised an eyebrow, not taking the bait.

Turning back to her locker, she closed and locked the door, standing up. This just seemed to anger Brea and walk over until she was only a few feet away. Her four inch heels gave her a nice height advantage making Sage look up slightly to her face.

"I never liked you" she spats.

'I was aware of that' Sage thought.

"You're so tiny and thin and frail. So not cute and not to mention that boring face of yours"

"Uh, I'm not really sure what it is you're trying to say, but I'm sorry? I mean, those things you listed are pretty superficial, but whatever" she said.

Brea glared at her.

"Sean should have never let you through the door back then. You never belonged here"

Well ouch. Sage made to walk past Brea and out the door, but not before Brea called out, freezing Sage in her tracks.

"In fact, you don't belong anywhere, do you? Poor little orphan" she smirked.

Turning around with an unreadable expression, Sage gave Brea a small smile.

"You're such a bitch" she said and left through the back door, leaving Brea gaping like a fish.

It was still early in the afternoon when Sage left. The alley was, thankfully still light enough for her to walk through without tripping over anything. Making it out to the street, she gave a dramatic intake of air.

"This…This is the smell of freedom" she breathed out then burst into small giggles.

"Oh my gosh, I called Brea a bitch. I've never cursed at her before. That felt great" she laughed walking to the bus stop.

After a good twenty minute bus ride, she came to her stop. It was just one block away from her home, the orphanage. It was an old, but cozy building. She walked up the stairs, opening the door and closing it behind her. Turning around, she was almost hit in the face with a football, but managed to duck just in time and let the foam ball bounce harmlessly off the door.

"Guys!" she shouted.

"Sage is home!" the boy who threw the football called out. Suddenly she was surrounded by a group of kids ranging seven to eleven years old.

"Sage, welcome back! Want to play football?"

"Sage play with me!"

"No, Sage, play with me! Let's play house!"

Sage smiled "Maybe in a bit. I have to go see Sarah"

They reluctantly backed off and let her head for the door to Sarah, the caretaker's, office to let her know she was home. Nearing it, she noticed the door open with Sarah and a young couple who looked to be about mid to late twenties emerging. What's more, she even saw a little girl, Cindy, come out with them. The moment she saw Sage though, her face broke out into the biggest grim ever and ran straight towards her.

"Sage!" she yelled, ramming right into her. Luckily, her five year old body wasn't enough to knock them both down. After settling her back down, Cindy started talking a mile a minute.

"Sage! Can you believe it? I'm getting adopted! I have a new mommy and daddy and they're so nice to me and tell me they're gonna love me and take care of me and buy me new toys for my new room and—" she gasped "I'm getting new toys! And mommy and daddy are the best and and and! Look that's them! Come meet them! You have to meet them! You have to!" by this point she had already grabbed Sage by the hand and started dragging her.

"Look mommy! Look daddy! This is Sage!" Cindy said when they made their way back to Sarah and the couple. The couple gave wide smiles that Sage nervously returned.

"So you're Cindy's friend" the lady said.

"Yeah, that's me"

"Mommy, Sage is the best! She takes care of me and plays with me and buys me candy when I'm being good!"

"Isn't that nice?" the woman smiled looking at her new daughter.

"Do you normally help out around here?" the husband asked.

"I do what I can when I'm not at school" Sage said.

He made a content sound and turned to Sarah, giving her a bright smile.

"It must be wonderful having a nice girl like Sage come and volunteer to help out. Sure must be a little tough sometimes just by yourself"

Both Sarah and Sage widened their eyes. The couple noticed while the wife picked Cindy up.

"Did I say something wrong?" the man asked uneasily.

"Well I don't exactly volunteer…I, um—I live here" Sage trailed off lamely.

"Oh!"

"Mike!" the wife quickly scolded.

"Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry! I mean I just assumed with your age—not that there's anything wrong with your age! It's just—it was wrong of me" he stammered.

"Um, don't worry about it? It happens all the time" she said feeling a bit uncomfortable as well.

"Well it's getting late and we should get going. Sarah, I can't thank you enough for giving us a chance to care for this little angel" the woman gestured towards Cindy in her arms and turned to Sage. "Sage, thank you for being Cindy's friend and taking care of her. I promise we'll be the best thing that's ever happened to her" she said politely, ushering Mike who gave an apologetic smile and walked out the door.

Cindy twisted around in her arms and waved to them, even as they strapped her in the back of the car. She poked her little head through the window and kept waving. Sage and Sarah waved back until the car was far in the distance. Sarah came up from behind and placed a gentle hand on Sage's shoulder.

"Are you—"

"They seem like the good people. I'm glad" Sage spoke quickly.

"I'm sure there are good people out there, waiting to meet you too" Sarah said.

She faked a smile and agreed. She left Sarah standing outside and went back inside.

"Sage, we're still playing football right?" a boy asked when she walked in. She gave the group of kids a little smile.

"I'm actually pretty tired right now from working. Is it alright if we play tomorrow?" she asked looking down at them. He nodded in understanding. Even the smallest ones of the group knew that Sage's job helped keep the lights on and food on the table.

He ran off to join the others in a game. Sage walked off to her room. She opened the door and walked into her room, quickly shutting it. She gave a shaky breath.

* * *

 _ **T: Sage**_

 _ **F: Riley**_

 _ **10:39 pm**_

 **For real. Cindy got adopted?**

 _ **T: Riley**_

 _ **F: Sage**_

 _ **10:40 pm**_

 **Sure did. Couple seemed alright. Hope she'll be happy**

 _ **T: Sage**_

 _ **F: Riley**_

 **10:43 pm**

 **I'm sure she will. Wow though feels like yesterday you told me Sarah found her right outside the door as a baby**

 _ **T: Riley**_

 _ **F: Sage**_

 **10:44 pm**

 **I'm gonna miss her**

 _ **T: Sage**_

 _ **F: Riley**_

 **10:47 pm**

 **Poor Sage lol you practically raised her yourself :) Don't get lonely on me now you hear?**

 _ **T: Riley**_

 _ **F: Sage**_

 **10:52 pm**

 **Do you think they'll really want her?**

 _ **T: Sage**_

 _ **F: Riley**_

 **10:54 pm**

 **Not everyone is a bad person**

Sage stared at the message on her phone and then looked around at her small room. The room she used to share with Cindy. Now that she was gone, she had it all to herself.

It felt too big.

There wasn't much to it. Some clothes, a desk with a lamp and a twin sized bed she shared with Cindy. They didn't have a lot of money for luxuries, only the necessities like food and bills. Most of her older clothes were hand-me downs, but ever since Sage hit puberty, she had to find a way to get some money to be able to buy her own clothes. That was how she was ultimately led to that cursed restaurant.

She stared back at her phone. It was an old android smart phone. She bought off Craigslist for $50.

'I'm too poor to afford anything better' she thought with a playful sigh. 'But it's still a luxury to me; that and the IPod Nano Riley gave me for my birthday" she glanced at the green IPod laying on her desk.

She fell back on her bed and stared at her ceiling longingly.

'What am I doing with my life?' she wondered and went back to her conversation with Riley.

 _ **T: Riley**_

 _ **F: Sage**_

 **11:01 pm**

 **Hey, about that offer…"**


	3. Chapter 2

**Well guys, here's chapter 2! Hope you enjoy!**

* * *

"Johnny, eat your food properly! Jane, you're spilling—Billy! Don't you dare! Put that yogurt down!" Sarah cried, trying to control the many children having a birthday breakfast gone wrong.

Sage sat at the end of the table, enjoying a ham and cheese sandwich with some juice, ducking and dodging the flying pieces of cereal like it was nothing. She looked around the table that had slowly spiraled out of control.

' _Just another day in the life'_ she thought.

Eventually, the table had settled and most of the children were packed and ready for school. Dressed warmly against the cold winter morning air, they stood by the door. Within minutes, the yellow school bus rolled up and the children quickly piled on, waving to Sage and Sarah.

"Bye" they cried.

"Be good today!" Sarah called back. Behind her, Sage gave a tiny wave to the bus full of children. Once the bus was far gone down the street, Sarah turned to Sage with a smile.

"It's just about time you got going too" she said.

"Trying to get rid of me on my birthday?" Sage smiled. She threw her arms up in the air and turned to go back inside. "Fine! I didn't want to be here anyway!"

"Always with the melodramatics" Sarah giggled following her.

"I try"

They headed to the living area where the younger children were sitting on the ground playing with toys or watching Sesame Street on the small television. They moved directly to sit on the couch, exhausted after successfully getting the older kids to school. They took a moment to breathe, closing their eyes.

"So, you doing anything after school?" Sarah asked

"Hmm, no not really. Trying to throw me a surprise party?" Sage teased.

"Oh yeah. Because the surprise birthday breakfast went sooo great"

"Hah"

They lapsed into a comfortable couple minutes of silence.

"So I'm jobless now"

Sarah sat up at that, her eyes opening and widen at the sudden news.

Sarah had known about Sage's part-time job. Sage knew Sarah knew. And she knew she never really approved of it but couldn't really forbid her from working as she knew she needed money. She turned from Sage resting, to looking forward as she stared out for a moment.

"About time"

Sage smiled at the response and opened her eyes to look at her caretaker. "Well I didn't _exactly_ quit. I got fired"

"Quit. Fired. Doesn't matter. Point is you don't have to be there anymore. I never approved anyways" she said sounding nonchalant.

"See? That's what I love about you" Sage smiled bigger at her response, sitting up and throwing an arm around Sarah's shoulder "You always seem to understand. You never ask questions"

Sarah smiled. She glanced at the time and turned to Sage before doing a double take. Her eyes widened at the sight.

"Here's a question for you. What do you think you're still doing sitting here? You're going to be late for school!" she yelled climbing to her feet and pulling Sage along. Dragging her by the arm, she quickly ushered Sage to the door where her backpack was.

"Out you go now!" Sarah said once they were at the door.

"Sure, sure" Sage said as she put on her long green coat and scarf. She waved to Sarah and headed down the street. The high school was only a quick fifteen minute walk and there was still a little less than an hour before the first class. What was the hurry?

The walk itself wasn't eventful. It was early enough for the sun to still be rising but late enough that most people had already left the neighborhood street for school and work.

Sage walked at a leisurely pace and as she got closer to the school grounds, more students started showing up, walking along the same street as her. Once she got there, there was only about twenty minutes left before classes started.

Sparing no time, she quickly made a beeline for her first class, math. Getting there, she noticed two other early students sitting in their seats, waiting for class to begin. One was reading a book quietly in their seat in the back corner and the other was playing his DS none too quietly. Sage made her way past the boy near the front row playing Pokémon, if the music emitting from his game was any clue, and sat down in her seat.

She pulled out her IPod, setting it to 'shuffle' and brought out her math journal, opening it to the latest page and doodling monsters shaped like numbers and variables up until class started.

* * *

Class started and ended uneventfully as everyone was too tired in the morning to complain and that was just fine with Sage. She preferred the quiet days.

The rest of the school day wasn't very eventful and soon the last bell rang, signaling to teachers and students alike that classes were over for the day. The students quickly made their way out of the buildings, swarming and reuniting with their friends. They were all trying to keep their voices loud and heard above the rest of the crowd, trying to tell each other about their days while some were already scurrying to the buses for the window seats.

Sage gave it a moment for the class to empty out before casually packing up her things and walking out, wondering the until she found her locker. Like the locker she had back at the bar, this locker didn't have much to it either; only a couple of notebooks and some textbooks she never needed to take home.

Ignoring the text books, as they belonged to the school anyway, she grabbed her notebooks and stuffed them into her back pack, closing her locker and turning to leave when she spotted Mrs. Vincent, her freshman biology teacher, coming her way.

"Sage?" she said coming closer and smiled "I thought it was you!"

Sage smiled back at her. Mrs. Vincent. The only teacher she ever felt comfortable with. She was a bit older in age, but still perky and full of spunk. She was the one Sage came to for every question and issue she had; forget the counselor.

"School is over; what are you still doing here?" she asked.

"Oh, um, I'm just packing my stuff is all. I'm transferring" Sage said uneasily, not wanting to tell her what she was really up to, but unable to lie to Mrs. Vincent all the same.

"Transferring?" Mrs. Vincent asked surprised.

"Yeah, uh, it was really sudden, but I got adopted! So I'm leaving" Another half lie.

Hearing the 'news', Mrs. Vincent broke out into the biggest smile. "Really?! I'm so glad for you! This is wonderful!" she said clapping her hands.

"Yeah…"

"Such great news" she says, grabbing both of Sage's hands in hers "Knowing you, I just know your new family is just as wonderful as you. Ohhh, I'm so happy for you"

'Great' Sage thought as she gave Mrs. Vincent an awkward smile 'now I feel like a big jerk.'

"Now don't let me hold you up" she continues "I'm sure you're excited to get back to them after a long day at school" she hugs Sage lightly one time and says to stay in touch before heading off to who knows where.

'Scratch that. I feel like the biggest jerk ever.'

Sage stared after her with a small frown forming on her face, feeling guilty for lying to the one person she ever liked at since starting high school.

* * *

'It couldn't be helped' she tried to convince herself walking up the steps to the orphanage.

She opened the door and made her way to Sarah's office to let her know she was home.

"Surprise!" Sage looked up startled to see Sarah, along with all of the kids in her office, jump out at her.

"Happy birthday!" they cheered.

"You guys…" Sage said, feeling touched.

"Don't start crying now, Sage" Sarah teased "We all knew this was coming. Let's not make you're last day be a sad one"

"Come one Sage!" one of the children yelled excitedly "We've got cake!"

Dinner was held in a similar fashion to breakfast—chaotic. The children played, Sarah stressed and Sage did nothing more than dodge and eat, merely observing the whole fiasco.

By lights out, Sage helped Sarah tuck the small ones into bed while a few stragglers finished brushing their teeth. They each gave her a kiss goodbye and Sage smiled at them, leaving the last room and headed to her own.

It was a quiet night.

* * *

At exactly 5am, Sage's phone alarm went off, waking her from her sleep. She closed one eye to adjust better to the bright light coming off the screen and reached over to it, yawning. She swiped the little red circle to the right, silencing the phone before getting up.

Sage listened for any sign of accidentally waking someone. Deciding the coast was clear, she stood up and used the light of her phone to look for some clothes. She put on a long black shirt and some thick black leggings before moving to her backpack. Pulling out all the school supplies, she refilled it with her IPod and phone, their chargers, some small headphones and her wallet.

With the backpack in one hand and some grey boots in the other, Sage slipped out of her room and tip toed to the bathroom for her toothbrush. Once she was sure she had everything, she made her way near the door and crouched down to put on her boots. Standing up, she threw her coat and scarf on and took a deep breath.

"So this is it, huh?" a sudden voice said from behind.

Sage jumped at the sound, and turned around, surprised to see Sarah.

Sarah took a step closer "I had a feeling you'd leave super early" she spoke with a voice extremely soft.

"You know I can't stay here anymore. I'm eighteen now. I've already stayed longer than I should have" through the darkness, Sarah could practically feel the sadness in Sage's voice.

"I know" she said stepping closer and placing her hands on either side of Sage's shoulders "I'll miss you though"

Pulling her into a hug, Sarah sighed.

"Just promise me you'll be alright" she murmured into her hair.

"I will" Sage said returning the hug.

They stayed that way for a couple of minutes before separating, Sarah holding her at arm's length.

"You have everything you need?" she asked.

"Yeah"

"Are you sure?"

"Yup"

"Positive?"

"Yes, Sarah-"

"Did a double check? Maybe a triple? Because I know you and sometimes you can just be so forgetful and leave behind the most important thing-"

"Sarah" Sage deadpanned "I'm fine. It's fine. _Everything_ is fine. I've got everything I need. Even my toothbrush" at that part, Sarah smiled.

"That's my girl" she said holding her once more. "Do you have a place to stay? Please tell me you do"

This time it was Sage who ended the hug with a smile on her face.

"With Riley" she said

Sarah's face brightened up at that.

"That kid?" she asked with a fond smile. Sage just nodded and her smile grew a bit more. "That's good. I know he'll take care of you."

Not being able to hold off the moment any longer, Sage pulled away first.

"I have to go now, or I'll miss my bus" she said a little sadly. Sarah's smile faded a bit as well. She knew they couldn't hold off anymore.

"Be careful" she said.

"I will. I love you" and with that, Sage was out the door sprinting down the street and racing to the stop as the bus came into view.

With lady luck on her side, Sage just barely made it to the stop right as the bus pulled up next to her, smoke clouds forming from the mixing of her hot breath with the icy air. The double doors to the bus opened with a hiss and she climbed on, money ready in her hand.

"That was some run you just made" the bus driver commented when she stepped up. She put the money in the box and a white ticket popped out for her to take.

"Would you have waited for me if I didn't?" she asked.

"Probably not. You looked too far away at the time" he answers honestly with a smile.

Sage smiled back "Then it's a good thing I ran" she said making her way towards a seat somewhere in the middle.

"A bit early to be out taking bus rides, isn't it?" he casually said.

"A bit early to be out driving said busses"

He gave a nice loud laugh at that.

"True, you got me there" he said after he calms down

Sage smiled at the man and answered honestly "There's actually someone I'm going to meet and he lives in the next town over"

"I see" he smiled "A boyfriend or something?"

Sage smiled back "No, nothing like that. More like a….brother"

"Alrighty than. I've been driving a while and nobody's gotten on except for you. If you're lucky, we might be able to just drive straight on. What's your stop?"

"Fanfiction"

* * *

 **I'm going to try to make this sort of a weekly thing, so hopefully that will help with making time to relax and write!**


	4. Chapter 3

**Here's chapter 3! As before, it's still going a little slow, but it's moving! Enjoy!**

* * *

It was nearing 7:30 when the bus finally rolled up to her stop. Sage took her headphones from her ears and placed them around her neck. She stood from her seat and made her way to the front. The doors hissed open as she stepped down the steps before turning around to the bus driver to thank him for the ride.

As the bus drove off, she took a moment to look at her surroundings. This was her first time in the big city and it was a big change from where the orphanage was. Tall buildings were everywhere and the streets were more crowded at this time of day than back home. But what really caught her eye was the building right in front of her; Fanfiction Corp. One of the biggest corporations in the world. The front of the building looked to be well taken care of with a nice garden and there was even a small curved road for cars to come and drop passengers off right at the main entrance. The building itself looked 3 stories tall, but stretched for what seemed like miles. The building, though, was actually quite small and humble compared to the many scientific feats the company has achieved over its years.

'Why read Fanfiction when you can go and live it?' Sage mused walking into the building. The logo on the glass double doors split into mirror images of itself as the doors slid open and closed behind her.

Unknown to Sage, a taxi pulled up to one of the apartment buildings in the same area, its red headed passenger having just ended their shift from work and getting out. As the taxi sped off, she saw Sage walk into Fanfiction.

'Sage? What's that brat doing in a place like this' Brea thought narrowing her eyes. Tightening the scarf around her neck, she silently crossed the street and followed her inside.

The inside of the building was spacious. There was a main lobby with a small food court; its many tables and seats scattered around for people. Although it was big, there weren't many people around that early in the morning. The people who were there looked to have spent the night sleeping on one of the benches lining up the walls. Employees were in stands, getting ready for the day as one particular coffee stand already had a customer making their way towards it.

Sage wondered around the lobby before she finally found an employee who looked enough awake to speak to.

"Excuse me" she said walking up to them "I'm looking for someone named Riley?"

"Riley? Sure, just wait here and I'll go get him" he said walking away.

Sage found an empty bench against the wall and sat on it, leaning on the wall to get comfortable. It wasn't long before she heard someone calling her name from a distance.

"Sage! There you are!" a man yelled coming up to her.

Sage stood up, smiling at the man she learned to call her 'brother'

"Riley!" Sage greeted when he reached her.

Riley, in turn, gave her a big grin as he handed her a hot chocolate he was carrying and a coffee for himself. She took a nice look at him before commenting "You dyed your hair again"

"Yeah, I wasn't feeling the red anymore" he sighed.

"So you go for a dark green instead" she giggled.

"Hey now…" he said attempting to have a stern face, but failing miserably at keeping a frown.

"It looks good on you" Sage said after she finally calmed down.

"Thanks. That's the sort of response I like" he smiled again and winked at her "When did you cut your hair?"

Sage lightly punched him in the shoulder, a hint of a glare in her eyes "I've had this hair cut for a while now thank you very much…I even snap chatted you with it"

"Sorry, sorry, it didn't look that short in the picture" he said causing Sage to unconsciously lift her hand up to the pixie cut on her head.

Sensing the awkward tension trying to make itself known, Riley quickly threw an arm over Sage's shoulder and ushered her to walk with him. "Besides, I was too busy trying to figure out how to use the filters…I wanted a dog face too"

Sage couldn't help snorting at that.

"Anyways" he continued like he didn't hear anything "I'm glad you're here. Well not here here, but here with me…you get the point" he said after a cough.

"I get the point" Sage said smiling.

"Yeah, sorry I couldn't pick you up like I wanted to; it was harder than I thought getting someone to cover shifts for me this early in the morning so we'll have to wait a couple more hours to go to the apartment" he says with a frown on his face.

"It's cool. Though I was impressed when you told me you worked here, but coming here for the first time, it's just…wow" she said taking another look around.

"You think this is impressive?" Riley huffed, leading her down a hallway to a door saying 'employees only' "Wait till you see where the magic happens"

Opening the door and waiting for Sage to enter first, she took a hesitant step before asking "is it alright for me to go in?"

"Of course! Just stick with me kid and you'll be fine" he said with a goofy grin.

Looking at Riley, she walked through the door.

The area where only employees were allowed was completely different from the giant lobby she was previously in. From wall to wall, the room was filled with computers and machines ranging different sizes as mechanics and engineers worked.

"Wow, this place looks like something out of a Sci-Fi movie…" Sage said, her eyes unable to focus on one single thing at a time.

Riley could only grin at her reaction "Pretty cool, huh?"

"More than just cool, this is amazing"

"Ah 'tis the world of us mechanics and engineers" he said proudly.

"What's more amazing is how you managed to force yourself here" Sage teased.

"Hey, I'm a born genius. What can I say?" Riley said and tried to poke her side, but Sage slapped his hand away.

Before Sage could reply, a slightly older man dressed like Riley, a light blue jumpsuit with a Fanfiction logo on the breast, black boots and a light blue hat and black bill with the same logo on it, came up to them.

"Riley" he said once he reached them.

"Oh, hey Trevor. Sage, this is Trevor. He's the head engineer here. He taught me everything I needed to know. Trevor, this is Sage" Riley introduced.

"Hi there" Sage said shyly.

"A pleasure" Trevor smiled before turning back to Riley. "Something came up with one of your machines; nobody can figure out why it won't work. It's your design, so I want you to oversee the problem"

Riley sucked his teeth hearing that "Really? Well it can't be helped then. Sorry Sage, you might have to go back and wait for me in the food court, I'll try to finish this as soon as I can" he with a sad look on his face.

"Sorry Riley, but it looks like the fix might take a couple hours and you're the only one I can trust to make sure everything goes well" Trevor said and looked at Sage "Again, sorry for the inconvenience"

Seeing the distraught in Sage's face, Trevor hesitated for a moment. He liked Riley; he knew he would get really into his work to the point of losing track of time, but what about the girl? Riley had been bragging about how his 'little sister' was finally moving in with him the day before and now he was forcing her to wait for Riley out in the lobby for who knows how long; the least he could do for the girl was make her wait a little more enjoyable.

"I really shouldn't do this, but I'll feel bad for making you wait in that tiny food court; how about we send you on a visit while you wait for Riley instead?" he offered.

"A visit?" Sage and Riley said at the same time, both having different reactions; Sage a confused one and Riley an excited one. "You mean it?" Riley asked sporting a huge grin on his face.

"Of course, just this once though; we aren't exactly supposed to be doing this" Trevor said.

"What's a visit?" Sage asked, looking back and forth between the two.

"Well, you know how here at Fanfiction, we can send people to a different world of their choosing for however long they can afford?" at this, Sage nodded "Basically, visit, is the term we use when we send them. Since these travels aren't permanent, they're just visits. In turn, the 'locals' of each world refer to us as 'visitors'" he explained.

Sage nodded and hummed understanding. Riley tightened his arm around Sage's shoulder reassuringly.

"Isn't this great, Sage? You'll get to go anywhere you want—and for free! Lucky kid…"

Sage tossed him a look.

"Oh, now I see. You're jealous" she smirked.

At this, Riley pinched her cheek. Hard.

"Ouch!"

"Working here for 5 years without a single trip; you'd get jealous too" he muttered looking the other way.

Trevor chuckled at the 'sibling' interaction before leading them to another room with some more computers and some equipment. Walking behind a computer, Trevor looked to Sage.

"So Sage, where would you like to go?"

At this, Sage thought for a moment.

'Where would I like to go indeed?' she wondered. There were so many possibilities to choose from. A trip like this, even for a couple of hours was expensive and she truly felt lucky to be given this opportunity. An opportunity she would most likely never have again.

The pressure was on.

'I can't think of anything!' Sage thought desperately. 'Come on! Umm, what was the last thing I watched?...Oh, I know!"

"One Piece; I want to meet Killer" she said feeling quite proud of herself, remembering the name of the long blond headed man from anime she was currently into. Trevor typed in the information while Riley gave her a questioning look.

"Killer? I don't really know much about what you kids are into these days, but that name doesn't exactly sound friendly" he said.

"I'm not a kid and you're only 26, so stop talking like you're old and gray" Sage said dismissively shocking him and making him sputter. "Besides, I mostly read the manga, but from what I could tell, he seems like a nice guy…with minimal screen time" 'At least compared to his captain' she thought to herself.

Riley gave her a disbelieving look. Trevor, having been used to the strange request many clients ask for their visit paid it no mind as he finished typing away all the information needed. Next, he printed out a number and handed it to Sage.

"Here you go. This number coincides with the pod that will take you to where you want to go. I've already entered the location to the pod you'll be using; all you need to do is find the pod with the matching number" he explained pointing to the number in Sage's hand.

Lastly he took out a strange black watch with a blank screen and handed it to her as well. "This keeps track of how long you'll be in the other world. To use this, when you get to the pod, just set the time limit on the small screen and when it's ready, it'll ask you to scan the watch against the screen to sync up. After that's done, just step inside the pod; it'll only take a couple of seconds and before you know it, you'll be where you want to be. Then as a heads up, when you're time limit is almost up, the watch will start beeping more and more the closer you are to leaving before simply transporting you back here. Normally, people can be set up with the 'create a character' option, which lets them give themselves special abilities or powers and even some physical changes, basically changing their identity, to better protect themselves in places that could be a little dangerous. But I can only do so much so you won't be given that option."

Accepting the watch, Sage thanked him and turned to Riley.

"My shift will be over in two hours" he said and Sage nodded.

"Two hours" she repeated and turned in the direction they pointed her to. She gave her backpack to Riley after he promised to drop it off in his locker, and kept her phone and IPod with her.

It wasn't long before she made it back to the lobby and headed for another hallway on the other side where the designated pods were.

Passing by, she didn't notice the pair of eyes that followed her. Brea had only followed Sage for a couple of minutes before the coffee stand took her attention away. After just finishing a late shift at the bar and then choosing to stalk a minor instead of going straight to bed would cause any person to wander to the smell of coffee beans. Brea only took her eyes off Sage for a brief moment to purchase her coffee, and she turned back around, she was completely gone. After sitting at one of the tables, enjoying said coffee, she finally spotted Sage wonder back to the lobby.

She wasn't going to lose sight of her again.

Sage walked around, looking for a sign to tell her if she was going in the right direction. Finding one, she quickened her pace and looked down in her hand to take a look at her number.

'OK, so my pod will be number 2…' she thought as she rounded a corner and bumped hard into another person, causing them both to fall to the floor and drop their things.

"Ow…watch where you're going!" a feminine voice yelled. Sage opened her eyes and watched the other girl pick herself up off the floor, grabbing her number card in the process and walk away without sparing her another glance.

"Geez, now I've got to find a bathroom and make sure my makeup isn't ruined for our fateful meeting" she muttered to herself "Oh Law-sama" Sage could barely make out the words she was muttering to herself the further she got away.

'She didn't say Law suit, did she?' Sage thought.

Ridding herself of the girl's strange ramblings, Sage stood up as well and grabbed her number, looking at it. "Anyways, my pod number will be number 24" she said out loud and continued walking down the hall.

Once she finally reached the designated pod area, Sage looked for Pod 24. She finally found it and, as Trevor instructed, set the time limit. Two hours she reminded herself. Scanning the watch, she didn't notice the screen begin to load and quickly jumped in the pod in excitement as it started up.

Unknown to her, Brea quietly snuck up to her pod and took a look at the machine.

"Can't believe the brat actually had the money for this" she muttered when she noticed something on the screen.

'PRESS OK TO CONFIRM. PRESS BACK TO EDIT' it said.

A wicked grin slowly made its way onto her face. Brea quickly pressed 'Back' and started to mess with the information.

"You want to be there so bad? You can stay there. Nobody will miss you anyway, poor little orphan" she muttered to herself, changing the time limit from 2 hours to 2 years and pressing OK.

Inside the pod, Sage stood, slightly leaning against the cushioned back as the pod started humming to life. Some lights started and she closed her eyes to keep from being blinded as a particularly bright flash appeared. For only moment, Sage couldn't feel anything, the best description she could think of, being that she felt like she was floating in nothingness. Then when she opened her eyes again, she found herself sitting on a chair in a room. From right across the desk in front of her was not a recognizable blue and white striped mask, but a pair of storm grey eyes topped with a spotted furry hat, watching her in astonishment.

Five seconds passed. Then, the sound of a nervous throat clearing was the only thing to be heard.

"Is there something I can help you with, miss…?"


	5. Chapter 4

**Sorry this was a day late! But it's here!**

* * *

Trafalgar Law was a man of many things.

He was calm and tactful. Calculating.

He preferred order.

Trafalgar Law did not appreciate surprises.

So it came as no surprise when the nth person these past couple months suddenly appeared. No, that wasn't surprising at all. What _was_ surprising was the manner in which they did. No grandeur entrance. No random meeting with Penguin and Shachi getting charmed into bringing them onboard (he really needed to deal with that problem of them bringing in strays). No charging into a random battle to show off their skills.

Nothing.

Nada.

Zip. Zilch.

Just a sudden appearance sitting across from him in his room; his _personal_ space. That in itself had been the most surprising entrance a visitor of his has made yet. And Trafalgar Law did. Not. Appreciate. Surprises.

This girl had some balls, if anything. But the look on her face showed just how shocked she seemed to be there as well.

There was a pregnant pause which the girl tried to erase by clearing her throat, looking around nervously.

"…Is there something I can help you with, miss…" Law said after a moment of observation, waiting for her to give him her name.

"…Sage" the girl said quietly.

"Miss Sage-ya" he grinned "Care to tell me what you're doing on my submarine?" 'or in my room' he thought after. Based on the others, he felt like he was fairly sure of her reasons for being where she was, but he wanted her to say them out loud, just for the heck of it; the girl looked ready to wet herself any minute.

"Um…" Sage hesitated as she fidgeted around on the seat "Well. I'm not too sure…" she trailed off.

This was new. Most visitors were ready to make a jump for him by now—not that he didn't appreciate the change. In fact, he welcomed it with open arms.

Sage on the other hand, looked just about ready to jump ship—er, submarine? She could not believe she got it mixed up. This was definitely NOT the Kid's pirate ship. It wasn't even an actual ship to begin with!

'I know I got in the right pod' she thought 'Why did I get sent here? I told Trevor I wanted to meet Killer and he gave me the number to the right pod. There's no way I could have gotten it mixed…up…' The memory of crashing into the strange girl right before reaching the pods came back to her 'Oh…'

Well shit.

"Um" Sage mumbled catching Law's attention "I think I know what happened."

Sage proceeded to recount what happened right before coming, looking down occasionally whenever Law tried to look her in the eye.

"And uh yea. That other girl was supposed to come here—I think. I was going to meet Killer" she said, mumbling the last part.

"Killer? Of the Kid Pirates?" he asked somewhat surprised.

"…Yes"

Law really didn't care enough to know.

"Well, miss Sage-ya. You show up on my submarine, and not even intentionally might I add. What do you suppose I do with you?" he smirked "What do you have to offer?"

Many visitors have come his way, and each and every one of them have, in some way, offered something of value to give them a pass on his ship. Different things, ranging from a devil fruit to swordsmanship and maybe even a marksman here and there. What did this girl have to offer him?

"…A helping hand?" she gave nervously.

Law waited.

He waited and waited for her to say 'just kidding' and give him a better answer. When none came, the smirk slowly died off his face.

"A helping hand?" he repeated, his eyes narrowing.

Sage looked down; feeling the glare Law was sending her way and gulped. A tense pause followed suit.

"…You're serious" he said once he realized she was telling the truth.

A quick nod of the head followed.

Law leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes, feeling the sudden need to pinch the bridge of his nose.

"I…I'll only be here a couple of hours—if that helps. Sir" she mumbled.

Another moment of silence passed before Law started.

"It can't be helped than…" Right after saying that, there was a knock on the door and a muffled "captain". "Come in Bepo" he said and the door opened, revealing the large polar bear.

"Captain! I've brought you today's paper" Bepo said as he walked over to give him the newspaper.

Accepting it, Law glanced over it before looking back to Bepo who was looking at Sage.

"Bepo, we have a new visitor. She's going to be here for a bit. Go prepare the spare room…again" he said.

"Yes Captain!" Bepo said.

Once they were ushered out of Law's room, Sage let out a small sigh.

'That was scary' she thought as Bepo began taking Sage down a long stream of hallways, easily pointing out distinguishable features to help her keep from getting lost. Sage glanced up at Bepo every couple of moments as he spoke.

"You're really big" she said after a moment's hesitation.

"I'm sorry" was the automatic response as he stopped abruptly and dropped his head.

'That actually happened!' Sage thought turning back around to face him, shocked.

"Um…it's ok" she said "It's ok to be big. I mean—people say I'm small all the time!" she blurted out. 'oh no! That was a lie I shouldn't have said that!' she thought frantically.

Unaware to her emotional turmoil, Bepo straightened back up immediately and started walking again.

"Ok" he said and they continued to the room without another word, Sage secretly being surprised yet again by his quick reactions.

Eventually, they stopped at a door and Bepo opened it to show her a small, empty room—minus the bare bed and a single drawer. There was another door on the left side.

"This will be your room during your stay. There are blankets in that closet over there" Bepo said pointing to the door.

"Thank you" Sage said walking in and taking a look around. Just as she was finished inspecting the room, there was a sound from the door and both she and Bepo turned toward the source. A second later, two heads popped through the door way; Penguin and Shachi.

"See Shachi! I told you we had a new visitor; this room is never used otherwise!" Penguin happily chirped.

"And it's a girl~" Shachi replied with dream like look on his face, blushing. There was something down right perverted in the way he said that.

"What's your name?" Penguin asked as they came inside the room.

"Sage" she smiled slightly more towards Penguin than Shachi.

"You can call me Penguin"

"Shachi"

"Bepo!"

"Law" all heads turned towards the smooth voice coming from the doorway to see Law leaning one arm against the frame, a smirk on his dark face. "Wonderful. Now that we've all introduced ourselves, I'd like for miss Sage-ya to follow me"

He straightened himself from the door and looked at Sage "Miss Sage-ya if you please?" he said tilting his head a bit to the side.

Sage gulped and quietly followed him out the door, leaving behind the other three to stare after them. As they walked down a couple of hallways, Sage couldn't help but notice just how tall he was.

'Everyone here is so big. It doesn't even look like the top of my head reaches his shoulder…' she thought before they reached what Law was looking for; a mop and a bucket of soapy water.

Law turned to Sage and gestured towards the mop with his hand.

It took a moment, but once she registered what he was insinuating, Sage quickly grabbed the mop without a word.

"While this may seem like a fun little trip to you people" Sage winced at the 'you people' part "this is still a pirate ship. My ship. There are no vacations here. So as long as you stay here, you will be put to use"

Kicking the bucket closer to her, he adds "You can start by mopping"

Sage soaks the mop in the bucket and starts mopping, looking down the whole time, hoping for Law to be satisfied and leave to his own devices.

He didn't.

After mopping for a couple of minutes, Sage couldn't take it anymore and, swallowing her fear, spoke up.

"Do you normally like to watch people mopping?" she asked quietly.

A beat.

"This is a first…" another beat "So you really have no skills?" he asked.

"No…"

"…You're stupid for having wanted to meet Killer instead. If I'm correct about my assumptions, Eustass isn't exactly the friendliest pirate out there and would have ended you the moment he found out you were completely useless" he smirked.

Although that should have sent a chill up her spine, the way he said it sounded almost, teasing, Sage noted. Maybe he wasn't such a bad guy after all.

"I wouldn't say _completely_ useless" she dared to say.

"Oh?"

The questioning look Law sent her was different than all the other looks he's given her since their meeting; non-threatening. Unguarded.

Nice.

'Cute' she thought and then mentally slapped herself 'What was that?!' she mentally screamed before composing herself.

"Well" she starts, daring a smile towards him "You have me mopping here…and whatever other bidding you'll want later, don't you?"

Hearing that, Law's questioning looked morphed into one of understanding and approval and muttered an agreement as he turned his back to her and walked away.


	6. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5 is up!**

 **KarmaBites: Who knows? Maybe something will come along to help her in the future!**

 **Sarge1130: I'm glad to know you like my story! And yeah, it wasn't specified, but I'm sure Law's had many-ahem- _admirers_ show up on his ship. It wouldn't be surprising in the least.**

* * *

It had been a while since Law left Sage alone to mop the halls. He was curious about her 'special circumstances'. That being how she ended up on his ship by mistake and how she claimed to have no special skills.

Besides, if what she said was true, she'll be gone in a few hours and that'll be the end of that. He'll never see her again, just like everyone else. Just as suddenly as they come, they leave without a trace.

'No need to bother with curiosity' he thought as he walked down the hall.

Once Law left Sage to clean, she pulled her headphones onto her head and took out her IPod. Turning it on and setting the music to 'shuffle' she put it back in her pocket and started mopping, bobbing her head a little in sync to the music blaring in her ears.

It didn't take long to finish mopping, as the halls weren't even dirty to begin with, and she quickly found a closet to store away the mop and bucket. Music still blasting through her ear drums, Sage started to wonder around, trying to take note of the hallways she's taken so as to not get lost, but to no avail.

'I have absolutely no idea where I'm going' she thought, rounding another corner and seeing a door at the end of the hall. "Wonder where that leads" she mumbled as she headed towards it.

Opening the heavy door, she was met with a salty wind from the outside. The sky was a clear light blue with a few, white fluffy clouds scattered around here and there. The wide, open ocean was a magnificent blue as the waves rolled by, almost sparkling and she couldn't control the small opened smile that formed on her face after seeing all the beauty.

Properly stepping outside, she ran on the deck towards the edge and gripped the railing as she looked at the scenery.

'It's so pretty' she thought, taking her headphones off and letting herself be taken in by the calming sounds of the waves.

A thought soon crossed her mind.

'It's been a couple of hours; I should have gone home by now' she thought slowly lowering herself until her back rested against the railing. She closed her eyes in contemplation. "Did something happen?"

* * *

"Sage!" Riley screamed running back and forth, searching everywhere he could think of.

She promised him that when she came back, she would wait for him in the food court to have lunch together. His shift ended over an hour ago and Sage was nowhere to be found. To say he was panicking would have been an understatement.

"Come on….Dammit!" he yelled at his phone when the twelfth call wouldn't go through.

"Riley!" he turned towards the direction his name was being called to find one of the workers wave towards him. "We found her! We found Sage!" and with that, Riley quickly ran to him asking where.

There was an uneasy look on his face as he told him to follow.

Riley was soon led into a room full of computers and he and the other were quickly called over by his team and Trevor who were hovering over one of the computers.

"Where's Sage?" he asked approaching the group of people.

"She's not here" Trevor said somberly "She's still in One Piece" shocking Riley.

"…You're joking, right?" he said disbelievingly.

"Afraid not, Riley" he said and pointed to the screen for him to see "We managed to track her watch's location and it shows here that she's hasn't left. Look" his finger slid across the screen to a column signifying the duration length.

Two years.

That didn't make any sense. Sage was only supposed to be there until the end of his shift. There were strict regulations under contract against giving yourself more time than what you paid for. And even though she never signed a contract; Sage isn't the type of person to just cheat like that. Surely this was a mistake. It had to be.

"…sabotaged her after she got in the pod" he heard Trevor say, bringing him back to reality.

"What?" he asked as he stepped up the other computer screen right next to the first one. Upon looking at it, he saw it was video footage of the designated pod area from a couple of hours ago. He saw Sage stepping into a pod and not two minutes later, an unknown girl walks in and started to mess with the small screen connected to the pod Sage was in before walking away.

That bitch.

"We got a good look at her face through the footage and already contacted the police to come to identify her and take her into custody. This isn't some silly game you can get away with; this is a serious felony" Trevor said approaching Riley who was still in a state of shock after realizing what that meant for Sage.

She was stuck there. For two years.

"I'm sorry Riley" Trevor said "Sage will have to stay there until her time is up and the watch brings her back; there's nothing we can do from here."

A moment passed before Riley's fist slammed against the hard table, startling a couple of people but not faulting him for it. His face was scrunched up as he gritted his teeth in frustration.

"Dammit!"

* * *

"Hmmm" Sage groaned as she opened her eyes only to close them back up tight and sit forward, her head rolling as it followed a second later.

"I fell asleep" she mumbled to herself and yawned.

She rubbed her eyes and rocked her body forward onto her knees, shakily standing herself up and stumbling a little. After a quick stretch, she opened her eyes again and when she did, she expected to see Riley's face smiling at her, welcoming her back.

She opened her eyes to see she was still on a very familiar yellow submarine in the middle of the ocean.

'I'm still here' she thought panicky as she looked at the sun setting over the horizon. Hurriedly trying to cheer herself up, she started to talk to herself "Well at least the submarine didn't go under while I was asleep" she said with an awkward laugh. A low grumbling soon grabbed her attention as she felt a hollow pain in her stomach.

"That's right" she grumbled to herself "The sun is setting and all I had today was the hot chocolate Riley gave me this morning…"

Making her way to the door, she took one last look at the ocean and turned back inside to look for food.

'I never even got to see a Sea King…'

After wondering around the halls aimlessly, Sage was ready to just pass out and let whoever came across her body freak and cause a scene when she finally caught a whiff. She could smell something. Something edible. Food.

It was as if her sense of smell went into overdrive. With each passing step, the smell got stronger until she came to a door with loud chatter coming from the other side. So enraptured by the smells coming from said side, Sage quickly opened the door and entered without a second thought. It wasn't until she was on the other side that the usual awkward shyness came rushing through her, making her blush a bright red from the sudden attention coming her way and hesitate in her quest for food.

The door Sage came through made the loudest screech and had everyone stop their conversations and look at her in curiosity. The whole room felt like a silent abyss as she quickly scanned around the room for a place to hide away. It wasn't until she heard the call of her name and saw Penguin and Shachi waving towards her that her heart began to relax and she let a grateful smile grace her face. She quickly sped walked past all the eyes following her every movement, making sure to keep her own eyes on the floor as she walked over to them.

"Hey guys" she mumbled as she sat down. Sitting down seemed to do the trick since once everyone saw just exactly who she went to sit with, they all lost interest and turned back to their regular conversations. Sage finally felt like she could breathe again when the chatter rose to a volume suitable for a cafeteria.

"Where have you been?" Shachi asked as he took a bite out of his apple. Sage couldn't seem to answer though; her attention was strictly on one of the sandwiches sitting on his tray. Noticing her stare, Penguin quickly snatched the sandwich from Shachi's plate and, ignoring his shout, handed it in front of Sage.

"You looked hungry" he said with a smile.

Sage looked at Shachi with a guilty face, ready to give it back when he cut her off "Yeah—Just…..yeah you look hungry. You can have it" he said with a wave of his hand.

Accepting it gratefully, she took a bite and chewed for a moment before answering their earlier question. "I fell asleep on the deck" she said after swallowing.

"You found your way to the deck? I'm impressed" Shachi said "It can get really confusing moving around if you don't know where you're going"

"Well I kinda got lost" she clarified "I wasn't actually looking for the deck, I just sort of got there"

"That just makes it more impressing" Penguin smiled "What did the Captain want with you earlier?"

By this time, Sage was done eating the sandwich and Shachi quickly handed her the grapes she was eyeing. "He said since I don't have any useful abilities, I needed to work and he put me to mop" she said, popping a grape in her mouth making the duo chuckle.

"That's just like the Captain" Penguin said.

"The submarines not even dirty" Shachi agreed "We Heart Pirates pride ourselves in keeping the ship sanitary for the Captain to work. What kind of doctor would live in a dirty place?"

"Then why would he make me mop?" Sage asked dramatically holding her hands like claws.

"Well you did just say he was going to put you to work" Penguin offered.

"Right" Sage sighed and just as she did, the door screeched open and everyone turned to see Law coming in followed by Bepo. Unlike with Sage though, everyone quickly went back to what they were talking about.

Law started for the kitchen before Bepo grabbed his attention.

"Captain, look!" he pointed in the direction of Penguin and Shachi and one little Miss Sage-ya trying discreetly to hide under the table.

'What is she still doing here?' he wondered as he and Bepo made a beeline to the table.

Getting to the table and sitting down, Law started to greet his crewmates.

"Captain!" Penguin and Shachi shouted in unison.

"Penguin. Shachi" he greeted "…Miss Sage-ya"

There was a distinctive thud under the table, and not two seconds later, Sage's head slowly rose from the other side. A weak smile made its way on her face.

"Uh, hello there, sir. Law. Law, sir" she said.

What an amusing girl.

"Bepo. Penguin. Shachi. Give us a moment" without another word, all three stood up and awkwardly began to leave, each one throwing an apologetic glance over their shoulder towards Sage.

Law stared at Sage as she tried to focus on finishing the grapes.

She hadn't left. She was still here. She didn't disappear like she said she would.

It was time to get curious.

"Why are you still here?" he asked suddenly, causing her to swallow her grape and choke on it. After finally getting it through, she looked at him with a startled expression before recomposing herself as best she could.

"I um….I don't know" she mumbled, looking down at her hands on the table when his stare became too much.

Law liked to be sure his subordinates were listening when he spoke. So this no eye contact was beginning to irritate him.

"Look at me when I'm talking to you" he said in an even voice making her snap her eyes back to him.

She was quick to follow orders. That was a good sign. This girl did not seem to be leaving anytime soon, given that the strange watch on her wrist hadn't beeped once since he met her. That wasn't a good sign. But he wouldn't consider it a 'bad' sign either. An inconvenient sign, maybe.

Law slowly leaned forward and rested his head in his hands as he stared Sage down. There was a moment she almost instinctively looked back down, but quickly pushed her resolve and held his stare.

"Do you remember what I've told you?" he said.

Sage gulped.

"So long as I stay here, I will be put to use" she answered robotically.

A grin slowly made its way across Law's face as he said "Good. For the rest of the night, you will be on kitchen duty" and with one of his hands, waved her in the direction of said kitchen, before motioning for Bepo, Penguin and Shachi (who were all so not subtly watching the entire scene) to come sit with him.

Sage blinked once. Twice.

"I'm waiting"

She quickly scrambled up on her feet and ran in the direction he waved her.

'I hope everyone likes egg salad sandwiches' she thought.

Later that night, Sage (with the help of Bepo) managed to find her way back to the room that was prepared for her. She walked in and took another look at it like before. Other than the bed, dresser and side door, there really was nothing else to it.

'But I guess trying to make it look welcoming would be going overboard for people like me' she thought walking up to the bed and lying on it. 'At least the sheets smell clean' she thought wrapping herself underneath them.

'I can't help but wonder how many people have come and gone during the middle of the night' she thought as her body began to crash from all the day's events and her eyes closed.

'But I'm sure someone will come and…clean up if I…happen to be…one…of those…people'

* * *

 **That was chapter 5 everyone! Hope you liked it and it would be very flattering if you left a review!**


	7. Chapter 6

**Ayyyye, Chapter 6! Sorry for being so late! School's been in for two weeks now and I'm slowly working on disciplining myself to spend my time more productively and such.**

 **But anyway, here's Chapter 6!**

* * *

It had been a week since her arrival and both Sage and Law quietly decided to not question how long the stay would be anymore. The time would come…eventually. As long as she continued to make herself useful, the fact that she hadn't left yet wasn't really troubling Law in the least.

Sage, on the other hand, had a slightly different opinion. Although she's been on the submarine for a week and able to start to open up to the rest of the crew little by little, she had a small problem on her hands. Since she only initially expected to be there for a couple of hours, she never thought to pack any clothes. This was her dilemma.

"It's too hot" Sage groaned as she lied on her bed. She had just finished kitchen duty and had a moment to herself to rest when the sudden heat wave came. She brought an arm up to wipe the sweat off of her forehead and lip and let it drop back to her side. The heat and her winter clothes were a bad combination and made her body feel incredible weak and heavy. Rolling up her long sleeves and leggings didn't help one bit either.

"Why is it so hot?" She growled to herself as she got up and walked out of the room to hopefully find someone to question.

As she walked down the narrow hallway, she soon saw someone walking by.

"Umm, excuse me" she said quietly grabbing their attention "I was wondering where all this heat suddenly came from?"

"Oh, that? We're about to land on a summer island" he said before eyeing her clothes "uh, you might want to change. It's only going to get hotter from here. If you need some air, we're already on the surface"

"What…" she weakly said "Ok…thanks"

The crew member nodded and continued in the direction he was going and Sage walked to where she remembered was the door leading to outside. After a couple of minutes, she finally found it and quickly opened it only to be blasted by hot air. She pushed forward and found that most of the crew was already out on the deck and prepping to get on the island. She found Law standing to the side with Penguin and Shachi in front of him, telling them what to get for supplies. They soon left and Sage walked up to Law to ask how she could help. Ever since the first day when Law told her to look at him when they speak, Sage had worked to keep it up and not unintentionally get on his bad side.

"Uh, Law, sir" Sage began timidly once she was within his hearing range and Law turned around to look at her "Um, what is—I mean…is there, anything I can do?" she asked shyly. She was getting better at looking him in the eye, but that didn't mean she wasn't still slightly intimidated by him. Whether it was out of fear or something else, she didn't quite know yet.

"Stay here and watch the ship" and with that he jumped off and walked towards the direction of what looked like a village.

Soon after, the rest of the crew also left the submarine and Sage to herself.

LINE

Sage spent a good 30 minutes outside of the sub trying to enjoy a cool breeze whenever it graced her before the unending heat eventually became too unbearable and she had to go back inside. Her sleeves were rolled all the way up to her upper arms and her leggings up to her knees but they just didn't seem to be making any difference.

"C'mon, Sage" she mumbled as she flapped the hem of her shirt to try and give herself some air "what can you do?...Gah, this heat is too much! How do those guys stand it walking around in those full body suits?" she thought thinking to the crew's boiler suits.

"They probably just change them regularly. That's why they didn't look sweaty. Yeah, that's it. They change into a new suit every chance they get all while I'm over here sweating like crazy in the same clothes I've had for the past week, but nobody says anything. I bet they have a giant pile of sweaty suits that Law will probably tell me to wash the moment it crosses his mind" Sage ranted to herself.

"But before that happens, I'll wash them now! Then when he tells me, I'll say 'but Law, I already did. They're all clean' and he'll be impressed and I'll be proud and maybe, just _maybe_ …I won't have kitchen duty tonight. It's brilliant" and with that conclusion, Sage was off to look for the laundry room.

It took a couple of minutes of aimless walking before she came across a door that said 'Laundry'. There were two washers and two dryers lined up against the wall with a rack for hanging and a closet on the other side and just as she predicted, there was a pile of dirty clothes just lying on the ground in a corner. Sage wiped off another bead of sweat off her forehead as she walked in.

"Well, let's get started then"

* * *

"This is ridiculous" Sage groaned as she leaned over one of the washers after putting in another load into one of them. The pile wasn't as big as she initially thought and there was enough detergent to go through all the loads; none of that was an issue. Sage's biggest problem turned out to be the waiting period between each cycle. The lack of extra chores along with the unbearable heat made each waiting period feel much longer than it really was and the heat was just frying her at that point.

Sage turned around so her back was against the machine and slid down to the floor. "There's gotta be a way to cool down" she slurred and knocked her head back slightly against the machine "If only I could strip and just lay on the floor but I can't because someone might come and see. Better not"

Searching around for something—anything—to relieve herself from the heat, Sage finally turned her attention to the closet door across from her.

'I wonder what's in there' she thought, forcing herself to crawl to the door. Once she was in front of it, she reached up from her spot on the floor and grabbed the handle of the door, pulling it open. Shelves, filled with nothing but boiler suits stacked high lined the entire back and sides of the closet. Sage just stared at them, thinking back to how fresh everyone looked leaving into the island.

"I knew it" she mumbled and quickly stood up. She looked around suspiciously as she scratched the parts of her sleeves that wouldn't go up any higher and turned back to the closet to start sorting through all the clean suits.

"Riley will kill me for being such a hypocrite if I ever tell him I did this" Sage said and switched to a deeper voice as she tried to impersonate him "Ugh, Sage after all that talk about how ugly my uniform is, You? You put one on? Typical—hey, what's this?"

* * *

It was only mid-day when Law came back from the island. He was satisfied with his exploration and happy with his purchases from the local medicine shop he came across. It didn't seem like anyone else had come back from their supply runs, so he decided to head inside and store his new medicines in the medical wing before checking on Sage.

Although she had only been on his ship for a week so far, Law felt like she was adapting well enough. Sure, this hasn't been the longest visitor they've had or even the most spectacular. She was, for all intense and purposes, average. She listened to him and followed his instructions to a 'T'. She continuously made sure her daily chores met his expectations. She was obedient and he liked that. But on top of it all, he also noticed that slowly, but surely, Sage was beginning to open up more to the crew and that was what Law liked more than even her obedience. Law liked order and other than following this orders, it also meant that the people under him had to work together. Sage may not have intentionally done so, but she was slowly integrating herself into his crew.

With those thoughts running through his mind, Law suddenly heard noises from the direction of the laundry room and began to walk in that direction.

'Good, Miss Sage-ya, you found the laundry room. I was going to ask you to do the laundry later anyway' he thought mildly impressed by her proactivity.

Reaching the laundry room, he noticed that the door was firmly closed and reached a hand to open it.

"Miss Sage-ya, I see you found the…" Law trailed off as he stepped inside and saw Sage loading in another pile into one of the dryers.

Sage, in turn, snapped her head towards him when she heard him come in the room. A bright red blush exploded all over her face from her checks, up to her ears and back down her neck when she noticed him looking down at what she was wearing.

Law couldn't believe it. Here he was thinking about how she was slowly being accepted by the crew, and then find her in the laundry room dressed like one of the crew members. The jump suit she was wearing was buttoned all the way to the top with his Jolly Roger showing proudly on her chest. Surprising enough, the suit was actually small enough to fit her.

"Law! I—I mean Law, sir! Hi! How are you? Are you well—uh, I mean, of course you're well. Why wouldn't you be? You're back! Well of course you were going to come back soon enough—eventually. It's your ship and all—why wouldn't you come—I can explain" she sputtered and covered her face with her hands.

This girl was definitely something.

Law looked around and noticed that her regular clothes were lying with what was left of the dirty clothes and that she looked considerable a lot comfier than when he saw her earlier outside. A smirk grew on his face when he made the connection.

"I hope you find our boiler uniforms much more suitable for this kind of weather than your winter wear, wouldn't you agree Miss Sage-ya?" he asked smoothly as he looked at her for a reaction.

Not expecting that reaction, Sage lowered her hands from her face to meet his eyes. Thrown completely off guard, she could barely remember bits of whatever explanation she was preparing to give.

"I, uh, I mean, yes sir" she said holding his eye contact despite the blush from earlier not going away. "It's, uh, a lot more comfortable than my layers. And breathable too" At this, she looked down and stretched some of the loose material around her mid-section.

The sly grin didn't disappear from Law's face as he said "Good. I'm glad you found the laundry room so quickly. I've been meaning to ask you to do it".

"Oh" Sage said and gave an awkward laugh "but Law, sir, I already did—am. I mean, they're already clean—well, almost" she cursed the bad timing and her shyness.

"I can see that." Law said and made a turn for the door "keep the uniform. It suits you. And we might be staying here for another day or so" and walked back out.

Sage's blush that was just starting to down, shot right back up at his compliment and mumbled "thank you" as he left.

Right as he was about to turn the corner, he heard Penguin and Shachi's loud voices coming down the way he just came.

"I'm still picturing how Bepo jumped ship the moment we docked. It was too funny"

"Forget him, didn't you see that babe who walked past us in the market? She was totally checking me out!"

"If by 'checking you out' you mean sneering, than yes she was. You were openly staring at her"

"It's love I tell you, haven't you ever been in—hey, isn't that your old uniform I accidentally shrunk a while back?"

Law's smirk grew hearing that. He remembered that little 'accident'. Penguin and Shachi didn't exactly become best friends right off the bat after joining the crew.

"I was wondering where that went!"

* * *

 **OMAKE**

"Hey, Sage?"

"Yes Shachi?"

It was a beautiful day and Sage, Shachi and Penguin decided to have a nice quiet meal together on the deck when Shachi suddenly spoke.

"You've been here almost a week already, right?" he asked innocently.

"Yeah…"she said uneasily as Penguin stopped mid chew into his apple to see where Shachi was headed.

"Well I was just curious, you know? You've been here almost a week and I know the Captain keeps you busy with chores and all, but you've been in the same clothes every day and I was just wondering if you've had a chance to have a bath?"

"Shachi!" Penguin scolded "You do not ask a girl that!"

"Well I was just wondering!" Shachi argued back "It was an innocent question! I don't mean to offend Sage, right Sage?"

Sage blushed and looked down at her half eaten sandwich.

"I bathe…" she mumbled catching the attention of the two bickering.

She cleared her throat and said a little more loudly "I bathe. But they're, you know. Really quick. And at night…when everyone is sleeping. It's kind of hard not to when the bath is basically one big room for all of you to bathe together" she finished lamely.

There was complete silence between the three, the only sound being heard were the waves calmly crashing against the submarine.

"…I'm sorry I asked"

* * *

 **Hope it was worth the wait. This was more of a cute little chapter**


	8. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7 everyone! Sorry for the lateness in updates, but it's been hectic I'm hope everyone can understand!**

 **scarlett key: Thanks! I've always liked the idea of having a character travel to another world, but I wanted to try doing a different, more "scientifically logical" way of how they get there. Plus this idea was first conceived shortly after I saw Jurassic World and the idea of fanfiction being something similar to that came to be! Don't worry about Law, he's gotten used to it by the point in time Sage popped up ;D**

 **angelacorus: THANK YOU!**

 **sarge1130: Brea was her name:) And she got off lucky because the authorities get to her before Riley does~ We'll just have to see what Law comes up with! They do seem to be growing on each other just a bit, but I think Sage might still be intimidated because of his freaky height advantage, who knows?**

* * *

"I'm glad the Captain let you on the island" Bepo said as he and Sage walked down the path to the village.

"Me too. I guess he didn't really have much for me to do today. Especially after how I acted for his 'surprise' medical exam" Sage replied and looked down at her uniform.

 _Keep the uniform. It suits you_

She blushed and quickly tried to hide the smile that was making its way on her lips before Bepo noticed.

A sudden breeze came by and both Sage and Bepo closed their eyes to enjoy it, Bepo more so.

"You shouldn't have hidden" he said. "It makes Captain mad! You're lucky he took it easy on you"

"Yeah, well it was my first physical exam" she mumbled "and from a guy doctor"

'A really good looking one' she thought

"I didn't know how to handle it"

Once they reached the village, Sage took in all the sights and shops.

"Wow! I never thought a village could be so lively in this heat" Sage said as she and Bepo walked into the main street. There were shops full of different and interesting things all throughout the street; some old fashioned shops and bars while others looked new and modern.

Bepo and Sage spent at least an hour exploring the different shops together before they finally caved under the heat of the island and just wondered around the street, practically dragging their feet. Sage had the top part of her boiler suit undone with the sleeves tied around her waist, thankful for the matching shirt Penguin gave her to wear underneath. Bepo's fur had a light shine on it from sweat and also had his tongue hanging out as he breathed heavily.

"This village is too lively for this heat" Sage mumbled.

"Sage" Bepo said as he fell to his knees and let the rest of his body fall soon after "I can't go on any further. It's too hot"

"Don't give up on me, Bepo" Sage grumbled, bending down to lift his arm up. After a miserable attempt, she sat down, semi-conscious of the fact they were lying in the middle of the street with people looking down and glaring at them for being in the way. She gave a sheepish smile at all the glares and tried to look for a place she and Bepo could escape the heat. Her savior came in the form of what looked like an ice-cream shop just a couple of blocks from where they were and the more she looked at it to try and confirm she wasn't just delusional from the heat, the more excited she became when she was sure it was real.

"Bepo!" she cried lightly shaking him "Look! There's an ice-cream shop over there! We can go there!"

Bepo cracked his eyes open and lifted his head a bit to see where she was pointing. The moment he saw the ice-cream shop sign, he quickly jumped up and, grabbing Sage, ran as fast as he could to the shop.

* * *

It was a relatively slow day at the Ice-cream Parlor. There were a couple of people scattered around the small space here and there enjoying a tasty cone or smoothie and one sickly sweet coupe sharing an ice cream Sunday together in the center most table of the shop for all to see.

There was a small line formed at the front of people waiting to receive their frozen treats. The cashier sighed and pasted a smile on their face as the next person in line approached. Just another day in a low wage job in a small town where nothing ever happened.

A giant white bear holding a little girl burst through the front doors and trampled their way in towards the line.

Some people screamed while others looked up startled by the noise. The few people in line luckily were able to jump out of the way of the bear as it rammed straight into the ice-cream displays. They watched him let go of the girl and practically cuddle up against the cool glass blocking him from the ice-cream.

Unlike the bear, the girl seemed a little dazed from the sudden impact and took a moment to gather herself before she realized she was there.

"Ah!" she said surprised when she turned around and saw all the people staring at her in shock "I'm so sorry! Is anyone hurt? Nobody's hurt, right?" she asked looking around frantically for any signs of injury. When it seemed to her like nobody was hurt, she turned back around to the bear still rubbing its face against the cool glass.

"Bepo!" she cried "Are you OK?"

The bear, Bepo, turned around to face her when he heard her call him "Sage" he smiled "It's so cool here. It feels great"

'Oh my gosh the bear talks!' the cashier thought frantically.

"Bepo, you scared all of these people!" the girl lightly scolded.

"I'm sorry" it said and suddenly dropped its head looking ashamed of itself.

"I'm sorry too" Sage said and bowed low to the cashier.

"uh, it's, uh…OK?" the cashier said uneasily. 'I hope this bear doesn't eat me.

"Oh?" the bear said and turned towards the ice-cream display between him and the cashier.

'Eeek! It's going to eat me!'

"Ice-cream Sage! Look!" he pointed to the many different flavors.

Sage walked up to the displays and eyed the ice-cream as well. "They look good" she said.

"Do you want some? I'll buy it for you" Bepo said.

"Are you sure? I mean, I don't want to be a bother!" Sage started, but Bepo was already picking out flavors.

"Wait!" she cried "I want these!"

Unnoticed throughout the whole fiasco, sat three people in a table by a dark corner, leering at them.

* * *

Bepo had long finished his frozen treats and sat with Sage in a small booth by the window as she slowly ate hers, savoring every mouthful.

"Ahh" Bepo sighed "I'm glad this place has cool air blowing.

"Me too" Sage said after a spoonful. "Let's just stay here until the sun goes down"

"Yeah!" Bepo agreed. "I'm glad the Captain asked me to escort you on the island today. I haven't seen you a lot lately".

Sage hummed her agreement through another spoonful of ice-cream "I've been really busy lately"

"Sorry about the Captain making you do so much around the ship. It must be hard" Bepo said.

Sage smiled as she finished her treat before she replied "I'm just grateful he's letting me stay at all. I'm glad he didn't reject me even if I can't do much" she muttered on the last part.

Bepo noticed her change in attitude and how the conversation suddenly started to take a turn.

"I know Captain can be a little hard sometimes, but why would he reject you? Captain is the best!" he asked.

"Well I didn't mean him specifically or, uh" Sage hummed "I… I don't really know how to explain it. It's not something I normally talk about, but the problem is definitely not with him, but more with just being rejected, in general"

"What do you mean?" Bepo asked.

"Well, back in my world, I'm an orphan" she began.

"Is there something wrong with that?" Bepo asked. "It should mean that nobody can tell you what to do! Just like Captain!"

"That's not entirely right though" Sage said "Where I'm from is different, way different from here, actually. There are no adventures to go on by yourself when you're young. You need a mom and dad to take you on them. There are also a lot of rules there. I stayed at an orphanage most of my life with a bunch of other kids who were waiting to be adopted too. And you can't leave until you reach a certain age. That's just how things work over there"

"There was no one that wanted to take you on adventures?" Bepo said sadly as his ears dropped a little.

"No" Sage said with a sad smile "There were some people who adopted me…"

"Really?" Bepo asked hopefully.

"It never worked out" she said "I don't know. Whenever people came to meet us, uh, one moment they think they want you, the next, well, they change their minds

"It's not like that with everyone, though. A lot of people are really nice and I knew a bunch of kids who got adopted and were happy but, I don't know, maybe it was just me?" she muttered. "I was actually adopted a couple of times—three I think. And that's the problem. It should have happened only once. But, I—I just kept going back to the orphanage".

"They didn't want you?" Bepo asked.

"Maybe we weren't a good match" Sage sighed sadly and said after a beat "It doesn't really matter either way now. After my time here is over, I'm going to live with my brother"

"That's right" Bepo realized "You're going to leave"

"Right" Sage said and saw how Bepo's ears drooped again "Don't be sad! It was going to happen eventually—after all, I'm just a visitor"

"I guess you're right…"

"Right! I don't know when it'll be time for me to go, but that's why I said I'm grateful for Law letting me stay with you guys at least until then. I know this might sound weird, but with you guys, I'll know that I'll at least be safe" Sage giggled.

"Of course you'll be safe!" Bepo said "We'll take good care of you!"

"But before that, you said you have a brother right? Does he have a family? Is that why you're going to live with him?" he asked.

Sage shook her head.

"He's not actually my brother by blood, but he's the closest person I have to family"

* * *

 **OMAKE**

Sage was scrubbing the floors when she saw a couple of the crew members making their way down the hall she just cleaned.

"Hey, hey, hey!" she scolded "I just cleaned there. Go another way"

"Sorry Sage!" One of them said when they reached her "But the Captain is holding a surprise medical exam today. Everybody has to go get a checkup and physical examination as soon as possible"

"Medical exam?" Sage repeated dumbfounded.

"Yeah" Another one said "Captain says it's very important that he knows everyone is in top shape and if not, to be treated for a quick recovery"

"Physical examination" Sage muttered.

"Captain hates to be kept waiting and hold these for longer than he has too so we have to go. Sage, why don't you come with us? I'm sure the Captain will want to take a look at you too—wait, where are you going?"

Law had just finished checking up the last of his crew when Penguin and Shachi entered the medical exam room. He turned to them and when he didn't see Sage with them, he gave a small sigh.

"Still no luck?" he couldn't help but ask.

"Sorry Captain, it's liked she disappeared" Penguin said.

"Yeah" Shachi agreed "You don't think she really has left? I mean, none of us know how long her stay is"

"If she left, we would have all heard her watch going off" Law said "She's just taking very good advantage of her small body. Keep looking, I'll join you soon"

"Sir!" they both said and ran out of the room to resume their search.

Law finished putting some things away before he got up and casually walked out of the room.

"Where could you be hiding, Miss Sage-ya?"

Sage was currently huddled up behind a pile of rags in a broom closet for one of the less ventured halls. She had been hiding there since she managed to slip away from the crewmembers that told her about the exam in hopes that nobody could find her and give up. That happened about half an hour ago, judging by Sage's mental clock and so far so good.

'I hope everyone just forgot about me having to get checked up' she thought 'my knees are starting to get stiff, but I can't go out just yet'.

She tried to stretch her leg as best as she could without accidentally kicking something in the small space and making noise.

Just as she was thinking that, she heard some footsteps walking by the door and she immediately stilled her movements. One of her legs was still stretched out and made her crouched stance very awkward and hard to keep balance. The footsteps sounded achingly slow as if it were on purpose and Sage put her hands on the ground on either side of her to keep from falling over.

She scrunched up her face.

'Please leave!' she mouthed.

As soon as the footsteps finally sounded like they went past the closet, she let out a sigh of relief and tried to settle herself quietly on the floor, but ended up sitting too fast and lost her balance, her head hitting the wall behind her. A small curse left her lips before she slapped a hand to her mouth and the door suddenly opened, letting the bright lights shine in and cast a shadow over the looming figure of Trafalgar Law.

Sage gasped.

Law gave her a stern look.

"You're late for your checkup" he said.

"D…Do I really need one?"

The stern look morphed into a glare.

"Let's go" he said and started to walk back to the exam room.

Sage quietly sighed and got up from her spot on the ground to follow him.

'No point running from him'.


	9. Chapter 8

Law looked on as one by one, his subordinates slowly made their way back to the ship after a long day on the island. Like yesterday, he opted to return a little earlier than the rest, seeing as he found no new shop or tidbit of news interesting enough to keep him busy that day. Once most of the crew members were on, he noticed that Bepo and Sage had yet to make an appearance.

"Penguin. Shachi" he called when he saw them board the ship "Have either of you seen where Bepo and Sage have run off to?"

"No, Captain, we haven't" Penguin shook his head.

"Knowing Bepo, they're probably somewhere trying to escape the heat" Shachi said.

Law straightened himself from where he was leaning against the rail and started to descend the submarine.

"Captain?" they asked.

"Even if they're just trying to stay cool, it's getting late and they need to come back to the ship" he said once he got off the ship and started to walk towards the island.

"I'm going to go look for them"

* * *

"…And then there was the time Riley came home with electric blue hair. Sarah almost fainted right then and there" Sage laughed as she and Bepo were still sitting in the ice-cream parlor.

"What's wrong with blue hair?" Bepo asked not fully understanding what was so funny. "The Captain also has blue hair"

Sage sobered up after a couple of minutes and replied.

"Well, in my world, bright hair isn't really natural like it is here. It's common, but it's not natural. Besides, his hair isn't really a crazy color. It's pretty dark, so it's OK" she blushed.

That helped Bepo understand better, but before the he could say anything, a worker came up.

"Excuse me" he said "But we're about to close"

"Oh! Look at that, Bepo, it's already dark" Sage said as she looked outside the window.

"We should head back" he said "Captain might be worried"

They left the ice-cream parlor and started to walk back to where the ship was docked. The streets were no longer as lively as they were during the day. The sun had long since set without their notice and the air was considerably cooler, which didn't go unappreciated by the two. They walked in silence and were halfway through town when Bepo stopped.

Sage stopped a couple of paces ahead when she noticed he wasn't moving.

"Bepo?" she asked innocently, looking at him curiously.

Bepo stayed quiet and turned around, Sage following where he was looking. Behind them were three guys she remembered seeing in the ice-cream parlor walking behind them.

"Is there something we can help you with?" she asked uneasily.

They pretended to not hear her and were talking loudly to one another as they got closer to them.

"Man!" one of them said once they got close enough "I can't believe that girl and her polar bear just barging in at the shop and ruining our perfectly good day"

"Sorry about that…" Sage muttered but they continued to ignore her.

"Yeah!" another one said "Who even brings a Polar bear out of all things to a summer island? Talk about dumb!"

"I'm sorry…" Bepo said.

"Hey now…Bepo being a Polar bear has nothing to do with that" She said a little more loudly but the three guys' complete attention was on how easy it was discouraging Bepo.

"Did you hear that? He apologized!"

"For something that huge, he's not such a tough guy!"

"What a freak!"

Sage, not being able to watch them bully Bepo further, tried to step up and stop them.

"Leave him alone" she said.

One guy finally decided to noticed her, and shoved her aside from where she tried to step between them and Bepo.

"Get out of here, girlie!" he said as they continued to pick on Bepo who still had his head down.

'What do I do? They won't leave him alone' Sage thought.

"Hey, I dare you to punch that thing in the face" she heard one of them say.

"You're on!" another one said and moved to punch Bepo.

"No! Wait—!" Sage yelled and without thinking, threw herself in front of Bepo, taking the hit instead.

"Sage!" Bepo cried when he looked up to see Sage fall to the ground a few feet away. He ran to her and gently lifted her up a bit.

"Are you OK?" he asked worriedly.

Sage slowly lifted a hand up to touch her cheek and winced at the pain. Her eyes began to tear up as she looked up at Bepo with a weak smile on her face.

"I'm fine" she lied "Are you OK, though? I'm sorry they were making fun of you…"

Hearing their conversation, the three guys started to laugh.

"Did you see that? She fell over like a rag doll!" one laughed.

"So weak!" another said.

"Just who do you think you could save by shoving your face in the way of my fist, girlie? Buahahaha!"

They continued to laugh as they made their way over to Sage and Bepo, closing the distance.

"I won't let you hurt her!" Bepo cried and got in front of Sage to try and shield her.

"Please! You're just a sorry excuse for a freak and she's weak. Who's going to stop us?" one said with a smirk.

Before Bepo could sink into another depression, a voice rang out catching the attention of everyone.

"My, what an interesting scene I walked into"

Sage and Bepo quickly wiped their heads behind them to see Law standing there.

"Captain!" Bepo cried out excitedly.

Not noticing the dangerous aura emitting from Law, the three men continued their tirade and decided to taunt Law as well.

"Who the hell are you supposed to be?" one said as another noticed the Jolly Roger on Law's shirt and stiffened.

"Stephan, I wouldn't mess with him if I were you…" he said already taking a step back.

'Stephan' didn't listen and continued on.

"Captain?" he taunted "between the bear and the girlie, I guess that just makes you another reject, huh?"

He smirked and lifted his arm up, charging Law as if to swing at him. Keeping a straight face with his hat covering his eyes, Law casually avoided the incoming attack with a side step. 'Stephan' stumbled forward after missing and turned around to try again, only to be met with a back handed fist by Law who had yet to move from his place. The blow quickly knocked him out and he fell to the ground with a thud.

"Stephan!" the other one who still didn't recognize Law yelled and tried to charge forward, but was stopped by the glare Law sent his way.

"Y—You don't know who you're messing with, punk!" he yelled trying to sound tough but Law's glare was unwavering.

"You idiot!" the third guy yelled in panic "You don't know who _you're_ messing with! That's Trafalgar Law! Of the Heart Pirates!"

Hearing the name, the other man quickly stopped his tough guy act and started to visibly shake in fear.

"Get lost" Law said.

He and the other, quickly ran to Stephan and picked him up before running away. Law watched them go and then turned back to Bepo who was helping Sage stand up.

"Captain! You let them get away" Bepo said.

"Only because we have a lady present, Bepo" Law smirked and gestured towards Sage, making her blush. "We wouldn't want to startle her too much, would we?"

"Besides, they weren't worth my energy. Let's head back to the ship and I'll take a look at that swelling cheek of yours, Miss Sage-ya"

* * *

"Bepo, you can go ahead and get some rest. I'll look after Miss Sage-ya from here" Law said when they reached the submarine.

"Yes, Captain!" he said and quickly left to his own room.

Sage also tried to make a bee line for her room but was stopped by the hand on her shoulder.

"Where do you think you're going?" Law smirked looking down at her. "We still need to look at that cheek"

Sage blushed as Law led her to the medical room, his hand still on her shoulder to keep her from escaping.

Once inside, Law told Sage to sit down on the nearest cot. She quickly sat down and gave short answers when Law asked how she was feeling. After a couple of minutes, Law leaned back in his chair and just looked at her.

"…You know, I thought you were lying to me about having no special abilities" he said getting her to look at him. "But after what I saw tonight, I have no choice but to believe you now"

"You thought I was lying about being practically defenseless?" Sage asked bewildered.

"Correct me if I'm wrong, but in my defense, I do recall you say you wanted to spend time with Killer of the Kid Pirates" Law smirked when he saw Sage's blush. "But I must say. I am impressed you threw yourself so selflessly in front of that punch. Bepo could have easily taken them out himself"

"…Bepo is my friend. I didn't want them to pick on him" she said.

Law looked at her for a moment, assessing her answer. Sage blushed under the scrutinizing look and tried not to look away causing him to smirk. He stood up and Sage watched him walk over to a drawer to pull something out. He came back and handed her a small bottle.

"Here are some pain killers in case it starts to hurt too much. There's ice in the kitchen for the swelling. You can head on to bed now" he said and walked out of the room.


	10. Chapter 9

"Sage no!" Penguin and Shachi pleaded to Sage's back as she once again turned and briskly walked away from them for the third time that day. Law saw this and smirked. She had been actively avoiding them for the past week. If not subtly slipping away, then she gave them the cold shoulder when they would try to confront her. Of course it wasn't to be mean or out of spite. On the contrary, she wished more than anything to let it go and return to her two friends. Thing was, she was just too embarrassed to face them.

Not after the Incident.

 _Flashback_

 _Sage hurriedly ran into the communal baths early in the morning before dawn while everyone was still sleeping and set up her things. Stripping herself, she cursed her luck as she began to shampoo her hair. Law just had to work her the night before. Someone had gotten drunk and couldn't quite make it to the bathroom in time, resulting in an accident to say the least. Suffice to say, Sage wasn't the one to get the short end of the stick when it came to Law's rage and disappointment in the discipline of his subordinate, but that still didn't stop him from ordering her to wash and disinfect everything in the area before she could go to bad._

 _On a normal night, she would just wait until everyone went to bed to clean herself of the day's work, but because of the incident, she barely had enough energy to drag herself to bed, let alone shower. She blacked out before she even realized._

 _Fortunately she was always an early riser and managed to gain her bearings before she bolted for the bathroom as soon as she saw the time._

 _Turning off the water, she grabbed her towel and wrapped herself up. Picking up her razor, she lifted one of her legs onto a small ledge and started shaving. Halfway through the second leg, the door to the communal baths opened with Penguin and Shachi wearing nothing but towels around their waist. They froze seeing her. Sage spun around in shock at the sudden entrance, accidentally nicking her leg and drawing blood which she didn't seem to notice, attention fully on her two male companions who stared back equally in shock._

 _There was a beat of silence after which Penguin quickly snatched the handle of the door and slammed it close once again leaving Sage to her privacy._

 _Sage quickly finished shaving her leg, got dressed and walked out, completely avoiding eye contact with Penguin and Shachi who politely waited for her to finish before they entered themselves._

 _Not a word was spoken._

It was so embarrassing, she just couldn't look at them despite their attempts to lessen the awkwardness. For fear of getting seen again, Sage opted to avoid the communal baths altogether and it wasn't until three days later that Law caught on and graciously offered his own personal quarters for her to use so long as she let him know when she'd need them for him to give her privacy. Not without a few chuckles and embarrassed sputters of course.

That was where she was headed at the moment. Bath supplies and extra uniform in hand, she made her way to knock on his door, but stopped short after hearing a moan.

'What the…' she thought and against better judgement, leaned closer.

There was a lot of shuffling sounds and the distinct sound of a bed creaking. A second, louder moan was heard, making Sage flinch back in surprise, followed by a feminine voice calling out Law's name before it was quickly muffled. Hearing that, Sage blushed bright red realizing what was going on, on the other side of the door.

Quietly, she tiptoed away from the door until she was a safe distance away to walked away.

'So scandalous' she thought with a still bright red face.

Ten minutes later, there was the sound of a wildly beeping watch followed by silence.

* * *

Law noticed a change right away. One moment, Sage was avoiding Shachi and Penguin like the plague, the next moment they were the best of friends again. Normally it would have seemed that she decided to get over her embarrassment and finally forgive the two and move on. After all, it was all an accident from what he was able to gather. And normally, he would have been happy with it, but with Sage's sudden 360 attitude change to Penguin and Shachi, came another attitude change towards him. She still continued to use his bathroom in fear of another incident, but where she was finally comfortable to start asking such favors of him, she suddenly stopped.

Again, this wouldn't seem like a big deal, if not for her reverting to avoiding eye contact and blushing every time he spoke to her. Other than the instances where she had to be near such as asking for the shower, it was him she avoided at all costs.

Suspicious

He wasn't sure exactly what he'd done to make his visitor once again uncomfortable around him. Thinking back, he remembered it started right around the time he had another visitor showed up to…and then it hit him. He slowly set down his pen next to a stack of paperwork on his desk. A slow grin rose from his lips as he let his epiphany sink in.

Of course that was it.

* * *

"Hey Law, is it alright if I come in?" Sage's voice rang out after she knocked on his door. After a couple of minutes with no answer, she shrugged her shoulders and figured he was out. Letting herself in, she locked the door, she headed towards the bathroom door, but stopped midway when she heard the sounds of the shower running before being abruptly turned off.

Heart dropping to her toes, Sage quickly realized who had just taken a shower. Turning around, she made a beeline for the door. Just as she reached for the handle leading to an escape from an inevitably awkward encounter, the bathroom door opened and before she could stop herself, Sage spun around at the sound.

"Sage-ya" Law said in acknowledgement.

Sage couldn't help it. She openly stared at the man in front of her. He was dressed in nothing but dark sweat pants that hung loosely on his hips. A small towel hung around his neck, but it did nothing to stop the beads of water dripping from the tips of his hair to roll down his muscular torso. Sage followed one said bead of water as it made a trail down his front and pool in his belly button before continuing its trek and teasingly disappear between the waistband of his pants.

Realizing what she just did, Sage blushed and quickly snapped her eyes back on Law's smirking face.

Of course he didn't miss the way she was clearly checking him out. Flattered, he decided he found it oddly cute how now she was trying to once again avoid eye contact with him. stepping out of the bathroom, he decided he wanted to tease her just a bit, if only to see how far he could push the normally quiet, reserved girl.

"…Hey Law" Sage nervously replied.

"Here for a shower, Sage-ya" Law innocently asked, lightly messaging his wet hair with the towel. He started walking towards her.

The way his muscles moved along to the movement made Sage gulp. "Ah, yea. But I see you're a bit busy, so maybe I should just come back later—"

"You're already here" he interrupted with a smirk. Sage's face got brighter with every step he took. Two feet before reaching her, he made an abrupt turn to the right where a small drawer stood against the wall.

Sage let go a small breath she didn't realize she was holding once Law turned his back to her. She glanced up only to see his back muscles moving as he lifted the shirt he had grabbed over his head.

'Shit' she momentarily cursed herself.

"Are you going to stand there all day or get yourself cleaned?" he casually teased, walking over to his desk to start on some paperwork.

"Oh!" That seemed to snap her out of her stupor "Right, well if you don't mind" she headed straight for the open bathroom.

"I've noticed you've finally made amends with Penguin and Shachi"

Pausing mid step she turned to him, noticing him gently lay the pen he held back onto the desk.

"Well" she nervously said "I couldn't keep ignoring them forever. It was just an accident"

"I also couldn't help but notice that as soon as you opened up to them, you seemed to revert back to your old self around me" he looked up at her.

Hearing that, Sage's blush which had subsided exploded over her face at being caught.

"I wonder why that is…"he said and stood up, taking slow deliberate steps to her, causing her to back away at sensing the possible danger. He didn't stop until he had her unwittingly stumble herself into a sitting position on the edge of his bed.

After a moment's pause "I…I don't know what you mean…" she averted her gaze elsewhere.

He smirked and leaned in, placing his hands on either side of her. He could practically feel the hear radiating off her face.

"Why yes. I think it started around the day…" he leaned in closer, studying her face "another visitor came to see me _personally_ "

The look in her eyes told Law all he needed to know. This girl defiantly knew what he meant. He smirked and backed off just a little waiting for her reaction.

Sage's shocked look dissolved into an awkwardly sheepish smile "Sorry" her voice wavered from the nerves "It wasn't my intention to walk in on that"

"Little fool" Law smirked and stood up fully and gave her some space by walking back to his desk.

"I do appreciate your sense of discrepancy. In all honesty, there have been times when I've caught members of the crew shirking their duties to gossip when they thought I wasn't listening and even once I've caught them pressed against the door"

Sage scoffed fully believing his story before realization came to her.

"Others?" she blushed. There were other times this happened?

"Of course" he smirked. "It seems I'm quite…popular where you're from so I would like your continued silence if and when such another visitor comes" seeing her face he added "It only happens occasionally, so maybe you'll be lucky and be gone before the next one arrives"

Yeah, right.

This man didn't realize just how _popular_ he was, Sage mused.

She grabbed her things off the floor where she accidentally discarded them and made her way to the bathroom.

"And Sage-ya" came Law's voice. She didn't turn around this time.

"I do hope this incident will not change the easy relationship we've built between us. That would be…unfortunate"

Sage smiled.

"Of course it won't"


End file.
